The midterms: A 'rowdier' Senate?

Politico’s Martin takes a look at the possible implications of Tea Party nominees: “The decorous and staid U.S. Senate could get a lot rowdier in 2011… [T]hey aren’t expecting to come to the capital to go along so they can get along. They are non-conformists who tend to chafe at authority, with both Rand Paul in Kentucky and Sharron Angle in Nevada making names for themselves by bucking the established order.

The Washington Post’s Cillizza and Roll Call's McArdle praise the Club for Growth, whose heavily funded South Carolina candidates Tim Scott and Jeff Duncan both won their primaries yesterday. Cillizza: “Those victories prove, yet again, that the Club's support -- in the form of bundled donations and spending on ads and direct mail -- matters in a real way in contested Republican primaries.”

McArdle: "Perhaps overshadowed in a primary season that has come to be defined by the noise of the tea party movement is the current winning streak of a much older conservative powerhouse: the anti-tax Club for Growth. A day after GOP House candidates Tim Scott and Jeff Duncan won their respective runoffs in South Carolina, Club for Growth President and former Rep. Chris Chocola (R-Ind.) was crowing about the rise of 'Generation Club.' Those wins come in the wake of GOP Rep. Tom Graves’ special election victory in Georgia earlier this month and a pair of Senate primary victories by club-backed candidates."

But let's remember: The Club for Growth has time and again shown it can make a dent in GOP primaries. What will be interesting to see if some of these candidates end up costing Republicans in competitive races in the general election.

ALABAMA: “Republican candidate for governor Robert Bentley has picked up an endorsement from Tim James’ campaign chairman, former U.S. Rep. Sonny Callahan of Mobile,” the AP reports.

CALIFORNIA: “It looks like Californians can brace themselves for a long season of campaign ads,” the L.A. Times writes after previewing gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman’s first general-election ad: “Through a stylized montage that moves through Brown's four decades in California politics, Whitman makes reference to the death penalty and Bill Clinton to make the case against Brown. The ad uses a clip from a debate between Brown and Clinton when the two men ran against each other for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1992. In the clip, Clinton says Brown ‘reinvents himself every year or two.’”

KENTUCKY: “Kentucky Republican senatorial candidate Rand Paul is seeking fundraising help from GOP lawmakers who voted for the massive 2008 financial bailout, flip-flopping on a campaign promise to shun those lawmakers,” the AP writes. Nine of the 12 senators listed on an invitation to a D.C. fundraiser tonight voted in favor of the TARP legislation.

LOUISIANA: “An aide to Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) resigned Wednesday after reports emerged that he had pled guilty to after an arrest for attacking an ex-girlfriend with a knife,” The Hill writes. “According to ABC News, Furer has spent the last five years in Vitter's office working, among other things, on women's issues.”

MARYLAND: An internal Democratic poll for Rep. Frank Kratovil has him leading 44%-39% despite the electorate's party preference choice for a Republican 39%-32%.

OHIO: Stu Rothenberg: "In bashing Bush, Buckeye State Democrats are scoring points against Portman. Not everyone, however, is sure whether the Bush strategy will prove effective nationally or even in Ohio." TEXAS: Former President Bill Clinton will endorse Bill White's bid for governor of Texas today, Politico reports.